AMHERST — As little as a month ago, it seemed unrealistic to think that Deion Walker could emerge as the University of Massachusetts’ No. 1 wide receiver.

Walker didn’t even get on the field in the team’s opener against UConn because he came in so out of shape.

But the 6’3” transfer from Notre Dame has burst onto the scene as UMass’ No. 1 receiver, tallying 17 catches for 243 yards and a touchdown in his past two games, and becoming a go-to target for quarterback Mike Wegzyn on third down.

Walker left Notre Dame after four years and transferred to UMass for his final season of eligibility. Under NCAA rules, if a player earns his undergraduate degree from one institution and still has eligibility remaining, he/she is allowed to enroll in a graduate program at another institution and play immediately.

Prior to that, though, in his final spring at Notre Dame, Walker dropped the second half of his NCAA-given title.

While public outcry these days is far more about kids becoming more “athletes” than “student-athletes,” Walker became just a “student.”

“I did a lot of studying, and tutoring sessions. I would hang out with my friends. When you don’t have to wake up for winter workouts, you can actually go out until 5 in the morning rather than waking up at 5 in the morning,” Walker said. “I was doing that here and there. I was actually living the life of a regular student, and I got caught in that, and that’s why I ended up out of shape when I got here.”

He came to UMass because he wanted to play. Walker, who fielded calls from a number of schools at the end of last season after asking for his release from Notre Dame, recorded just one catch for the Fighting Irish.

For a player that was ranked 25th in the nation at his position by Rivals.com coming out of Christchurch (Va.) high school, that was an unabated disappointment.

“It’s not that he didn’t have the talent, it’s that he didn’t finish plays, didn’t finish practice, didn’t string two good, hard practices together back-to-back,” UMass coach Charley Molnar, who was Walker’s offensive coordinator for his final two seasons at Notre Dame, said.

But Molnar always believed in Walker, so when he got the UMass job, he saw the opportunity to bring the sometimes-mercurial receiver to Amherst.

“When he would get hot in practice, he would have infectious confidence. He would just light up the whole room,” Molnar said. “I was hoping he would bring that side here with him, which he has done.”

But when Walker initially arrived in Amherst, it was apparent that he wasn’t ready.

“He was a little out of shape,” UMass wide receivers coach Allen Suber said, pausing. “A lot out of shape.”

Walker didn’t play a single snap against UConn. Molnar talked to him afterward.

“I told him, ‘Deion, you know why you didn’t play. It’s you. It has nothing to do with any of the guys that played in front of you. It’s the way that you’ve practiced, the way that you’ve prepared yourself for this season. You’re just not ready to contribute, and it’s not fair just because you came in as a fifth year transfer that you would automatically get the job. I told you’d have every chance to win the job, but we didn’t guarantee you the job,’” Molnar recalled.

Walker accepted the blame, went back to work and got on the field against Indiana, where he made an acrobatic catch on the sideline. It was his only one of the day, but it turned out to be bigger than just one catch.

Art Walker, Deion’s father, couldn’t watch the game because the high school team he coaches was playing at the same time. But when he checked his phone and saw he had two missed calls from his son, he knew it was either really good or really bad.

Individually, I was pretty excited,” Deion Walker said of Saturday. “I was bummed out about the loss because I felt that we should have won that game, but individually I was excited.”

Now, Walker has to show the consistency required to be the team’s No. 1 receiver week in and week out. Molnar says he expects Walker not only to keep it up, but to continue to improve.

“He just keeps getting better and better, because the better he practices, the better he gets,” Molnar said.